


A Present Worth Recieving

by Neffectual



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, Roxas is a dick, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-06
Updated: 2014-08-06
Packaged: 2018-02-12 03:02:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2093187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neffectual/pseuds/Neffectual
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Axel has a special treat for Roxas on Valentine's Day, but the blond isn't so sure about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Present Worth Recieving

They don't do Valentine's Day.  It's not an unspoken agreement so much as Roxas openly scoffing at the cards and the increase in the price of flowers, the way he talks about the tokens the girls in class come in with from boyfriends of maybe a month.  It's not just the hetero-normativity of it all, either, although that certainly plays a part in why the cards are laughed at.  Axel didn't mind when they first got together, when they were both students and didn't have any money  and if they did, they spent it on themselves.  They did birthday and Christmas presents, and why did they need a day to say that they cared about each other?  So when they both agreed, Valentine's Day was spent together (if they could) on the sofa, watching films, cuddling up and laughing at each other; Axel for the cold, Roxas for sulking when Axel didn't like his favourite character.  They were a young couple in love, and everything way going well for them.  They didn't need flowers, pink crap with hearts on it, or petals on the bed, just each other and the big bed they shared every night.

This was fine when they agreed, when they were both students, but Axel was working now, and had a bit more money, they saw each other less often, with Axel living back in his parents' back bedroom, and he wanted to make sure that Roxas knew, without a doubt, that he was loved, was wanted, was needed.  He knew Roxas knew, but it was about doing something for him, about showing appreciation that he was loved in return.  It had nothing to do with that anyone else thought  fuck 'em  or trying to book a table in a restaurant with 100 other couples, or even just about spending money like you were 'supposed to'.  Axel wanted to, and that was the only time Roxas ever lost an argument; when Axel wanted to, because he loved him.  The year before, he'd bought a plant, picked up in last minute panic, because he hadn't expected to see Roxas that night, bought with a dinner in case he was imposing.  Roxas had laughed at him, but accepted it, grinning.  He'd managed to kill it pretty quickly, all things considered, and Axel didn't know if that was just because he didn't care about it, or a deliberate statement about the lovers' holiday.  He just knew that the rosebuds starting to grow when he bought it never got a chance to bloom.

Roxas was more scathing this year, he'd noticed that already, sneering at the idea of other people in love, of people who wanted to ascribe to a cultural norm, to a holiday which had nothing to do with love and everything to do with money.  He was bitter about others at university with him who had their partners close, or living with them, frequently snarling about the girls in his class who brought their graduated, jobless boyfriends into the lectures with them and spent the whole time talking loudly enough that Roxas couldn't hear the tutor, but could be disgusted by their sugary language and simpering smiles.  Axel knew a lot of that was just jealousy, that Roxas missed it when they lived together, that he missed their closeness, where now Axel had to drive fifty miles to get to him, and even then, it was for a weekend every fortnight, rather than every night as it had been the year before.  It didn't help that Axel had work, so when Roxas had class breaks, Axel was always still at work, still not contactable, whilst the girls chattered away to their boyfriends.  Sure, he had Larxene and, until recently, Riku, but Axel had noticed the viciousness in his tone when Roxas talked about Riku, who'd found some overly-talkative brunette to date, just before Valentine's Day, and was planning the usual  restaurant, movie at home, rose petals on the bed  and if Axel believed everything Roxas said, he's assume this brunette was actually naïve enough to think that Riku was being unique, rather than copying every movie he'd ever seen.  Larxene was bitter, too, after her last girlfriend 'discovered' boys and ran off as fast as her little legs could carry her, and her bitterness was rubbing off on Roxas.  Riku had been a calming influence, and with him gone, it seemed like the two blondes just mocked everyone and everything around them. 

Axel hadn't told Roxas he was coming, because he knew he'd get a lecture about that day, in particular, and it being a Tuesday, so Axel must have taken the following day off work, for personal reasons, like anyone couldn't guess what those were, so close to that date.  He could stand to bypass what felt like Larxene's words coming out of Roxas' mouth, to be perfectly honest; if he'd wanted that, he would have just dated Larxene, bodily incompatible or not, they would have been a wicked battle of wits and words.  But he hadn't given Roxas any warning, so he was unsurprised when he wasn't welcomed at the door with a kiss.  
"What the fuck are you doing here?"  
"Hello darling, nice to see you too." Axel said, kissing Roxas' cheek before the blond could swerve out of the way, "Do let me in, would you?"  
"Don't call me that." Roxas said, automatically, but stepped out of the way and let him in, scowl still firmly fixed, "And again, what are you doing here?  Today?  This had better not be one of your ideas."  
"Would I do that to you?  I just wanted to see you.  I brought dinner."  
"I already ate." Roxas muttered, brushing past him as he headed to the kitchen, going to towards the living room, which was dark and quiet.  Axel put the steak in the fridge, noting how empty it was, other than some heading-towards-cheese milk, and reminded himself to get Rox some food in before he went back to work.  
"Have you been sat in the dark all night?" he asked, leaning into the doorway, looking at Roxas lit only by the laptop screen, before flicking the light on and watching his lover blink in the new light.  
"What do you care?"  
Axel mentally rolled his eyes, but tried not to let the impatience show on his face.  
"Of course I care.  You'll damage your eyes.  You should at least be wearing your glasses if you're working."  
Roxas made an inarticulate snarl and Axel fought the sigh building up.  So this wasn't just Valentine's and other people, this was uni work and classmates and everything else climbing into Roxas' brain and making him miserable.  He was going to be defensive and snippy.

Of course, the problem with Axel has always and will always be that he can't help but push his luck, even when he knows that's what he's doing.  So he sat himself down next to Roxas and handed him and small, wrapped package.  It was clearly a box, wrapped in red paper and tied with a gold ribbon, but Roxas didn't take much time to study it before he hurled it against the far wall, where it bounced forlornly under the table.  
"What was that for?" Axel asked, as Roxas stood up, nearly upending his laptop with the speed with which he moved.  
"We don't do Valentine's, Axel, it was a fucking agreement."  
"It's not a Valentine's present, just a present I'm giving to you today, then, it's nothing to do with Valentine's."  
Roxas' face went red.  
"We're not like them, we're not going to be like all those other couples, stop trying to make us!" he hissed, grabbing his coat, "I don't fucking want anything from you."  With that he was out of the door, slamming it behind him.  It was cold outside, but that didn't dampen his anger as he strode towards his car ad dug in his pocket for his keys.  He was snarling under his breath as he noticed the red-enveloped card under his wiper, and tore it out from under, shoving it into the passenger seat as he got into the car and closed the door, switching the hear onto high and turning on the engine.  It stuttered a couple of times before starting, and he swore darkly.  Cold weather always messed up his car, and he'd had to use Axel's a few times, with jump leads, to get it running.  He wasn't going to be stopping the car anywhere tonight, that was for certain, or at least not turning off the engine.  He wasn't going to call Axel for help.

He drove through the dark until he felt himself getting tired, and slipped the car slowly back into the parking space he'd left it in.  Axel's car was gone, and he was feeling a bit of remorse about it.  He looked at the card, and, after parking up, picked it up and slipped a finger under the seal of the envelope.  He cast his eyes over the front of the card, which looked handmade and slightly more delicate than he was expecting, blues and greens making up a sea-like shade, rather than the red or pink he might have been waiting for.  He opened it and read quickly, anger receding with every word, then tore the keys out of the ignition, leaped from the car and pelted upstairs, fumbling the keys as he tried to get them into the lock before he was inside, opening that little red and gold box, and going absolutely silent and still when he saw what was in it.  Eventually, he dug his phone out from between the cushions of the sofa, and called Axel.  
"I'm a dick, aren't I?" he said, the moment Axel picked up.  
"I'm beginning to come around to that conclusion, yeah." His boyfriend said, sounding tired and hurt, and Roxas wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around him, "I take it you opened it."  
"Yeah."  
"And?" Axel prompted, but he didn't sound very hopeful.  
"Yes.  Of course yes.  Always yes." Roxas murmured, breathlessly, then laughed as he heard Axel give a whoop of triumph, "I'm not dick enough to turn that down."  
"One never knows with you." Axel replied, but Roxas could hear the smile in his voice, and took it for what it was.

When he'd hung up, Roxas sat in the living room for a little while, unheeding of the dark, the cold creeping into the room, the click of the heating going off, his hand wrapped tightly around a small, silver house key.


End file.
